22nd

Exchange-a-gram

Gaming

Funny how the online games portray in guy’s lives. Well not just these online games, but practically all games. While girls have their usual girl talk, we guys hang out at cafè’s and have our hourly gaming sessions. It’s normal for a guy to spend hours and hours of just playing a game. Or to put it simply, guys are gamers. For example, myself.

The first ever console that I have played is the so called NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) today. Family Computer as other remembers. Next is SNES (Super NES) or Super Family Computer. Those 2, I have preserved and are currently here in my house. I sometimes play with them and get nostalgic at the earlier years when I was a child and didn’t care about anything but finishing Super Mario World 1-3, Mickey Mouse and Final Fight (forgive me, I don’t buy games, I am just given some). Then next came Nintendo 64, but used it like 6 times only and played Pokèmon Arena?, I forgot where it went after that. Then got my first Gameboy, not the first one, but the Advanced SP. Then came the real Pokèmon gaming. Then I got my Playstation 1 and played Harvestmoon like forever. There came also my Playstation 2 afterwards and hours and hours of GTA (Grand Theft Auto) took place. We had a computer by then that time, but I didn’t care about it much. When we lived here at Pasig, I left those consoles and got only my Nintendo DS which like had Mario Kart, FF3 and the last tape of Pokèmon Sapphire for it’s GBA slot and that’s all I did. Until our computer was brought home. I was 2nd year high school by that time and just created my friendster page and started browsing the net. And that’s also the time my life went from consoles to desktops.

I started going to shops because my parents were strict about me surfing the net. There I met the game Warcraft III, and the still running part of it, DotA (Defense of the Ancients). Still a boom today, I played a couple of years, 2nd year high school-2nd year college, then I got bored of it. I still play rounds, when my cousins want me to. But it wasn’t the thing that I really enjoyed. What I loved was way back 3rd year high school. MU Online, which was a game I saw my sister play. It was the first online game I ever played, and first and last pay-to-play game too. I reached the point where MU Online was free-to-play but I grew tired of it. The one that really got me hooked was the next online game, CABAL Online. It got me playing till the 1st year of college. Trying out the Blader and Force Blader and killing high-level characters in game in a PVP. I also met someone in that game, it was very random, I’ll tell you the story..

Well, first of all, I may be one of the few scammers in CABAL Online. I created a female character there and started finding a guy player in who can give me some items inside the game. Technically not scamming, but lying I guess. So I was roaming inside the town of the game and ran over a female character. I was using my male character and thought why not try it otherwise. In my language I told her “Do you have a boyfriend? C’mon, be my girlfriend here.” Great ice breaker? Ha ha, but that started our daily meeting in the game. Her name was Amber Chelsea. It wasn’t really as nice at it started but boy, it was really random and cool. Why, do you say? The girl I chatted out of nowhere in the game turned out to be the girlfriend of my friend, John Phillip Godinez. We (Me and John) became bestfriends out of that hilarious event. When they broke up, I tried to court her. But to no avail. Story of my life. I was actually leveling my character because I have someone to see in the game. And frankly I became an addict in the game when I met her. I haven’t seen her in real life, but I have seen her online. I also had times where we talked on the phone (landline and cellphone). The feeling was a bit mutual, but that’s not always how it goes. That’s why don’t expect much, Erick. Ha ha. The time I quitted CABAL was when we were cold to each other and started drifting apart. Boom, life happened.

Moving on.. Next game, I am still playing today, alongside 2 other online games. Granado Espada. I love the gameplay of this game, and I must say, I am still hooked by this game. I can’t leave it be, even if 3 of my friends are not around right now (Jarvin, Pons and Nate). But me and Renz still spend time at GE. And he’s like a God there having powerful items (using his real money to buy in game items) while me, finding every opportunity to save money inside the game to get stronger. I still manage to go online to have rounds in earning money, then logging out after. It’s because I don’t have my friends there to talk to. The past times were awesome. Even though we were not doing much about our characters, the fact that we were in one Faction (a group, and Jarvin was the leader, the one who recruited us to play) talking to each other had a big impact in staying. GE is an AFK (Away From Keyboard) game. You can press spacebar and your 3 characters attack the nearest monster it sees. My computer is always open because of this game. Well, I am not that active in this game, but I most definitely cannot leave it. I still have my duties at my new Faction with different people (GE Philippines is connected to the Singaporean server, so I have Singaporean friends there). :)

The two games I am playing besides Granado Espada are Luvinia Online and Forsaken World. Luvinia is just some of the frustrated part of me that wants to play a game that none of my friends know and become strong there by myself. And so if by sometime they want to try, I would be the one stronger. Ha ha. While Forsaken World, I was recruited by Gian Nathaniel. I started playing not long after it was released so I was a step further than my other friends, but then school came and I stopped a while. Why not stop at GE? Because Luvinia, Forsaken World, and CABAL Online are hands-on games. You cannot leave it there and you level up by yourself. Well, they have that, but not the same as the gameplay of GE. It wins the best gameplay for me, also the graphics. How the characters there use skills, very clean and cool. :)

Well, at the present, Granado Espada, Forsaken World and Luvinia Online are the games I am playing. Also some DotA in occassions, I also open Battle Realms here, and Frets on Fire V. But clearly these is how I spend my time at home. Gaming and surfing the net. Apparently, I still have one handheld gaming device, my PSP Go. But where did I put that *finding my psp*.. Oh I forgot, I only use it only as a secondary storage device. Ha ha, and it’s with Aira. Oh well, no problem. ;)